Stepping up your Youth Educator/Ally Game:

How can I teach them it if I don't understand or support the issue?

Michele Luc, MSW, ACT for Youth/CCE NYC

ObjectivesParticipants will be able to:• Discuss several challenging or “hot button”

issues that are relevant to their students.

• Explore strategies to develop the competency and confidence to discuss these issues while supporting their students.

What is an Ally?Ally: A person committed to dismantling oppression through education and active collaboration with members of target or non-power group. (Adapted from Visions, Inc. and the MSU Extension Multicultural Awareness Workshop)

Allyship: An active, consistent and arduous practice of unlearning and re-evaluating, in which a person in a position of privilege and power seeks to operate in solidarity with a marginalized group. (Adapted from the Anti-Oppression Network & Peer Net BC)

NOTE

• While we are discussing adults being allies to youth, this can also refer to:• men committed to ending sexism• white people committed to undoing racism• heterosexual people committed to interrupting

heterosexism/homophobia• able-bodied people who work to dismantle

ableism

Poll

Q. Have you ever had to teach a topic that you weren’t very knowledgeable about?

Examples?

PollQ. • Have you ever had to

give a lesson on content that you weren’t comfortable with?

• Examples?

Reflection

• What are some challenging issues, themes, topics and/or content areas that have come up in your work?

• What feelings did they bring up for you?

So how do we address these challenges?

Varying Knowledge of Content• Make yourself familiar with the content area you will be

covering, and find resources to help you develop a competency in that area.

• Organizations like Answer based in NJ or Planned Parenthood with sites all over the country offer trainings in all things related to sexuality & sexual health.

Varying Knowledge of Content

• Learning can happen from trainings (in-person or on-line) as well as through research• Articles• Scholarly journals• On-line sites

• Most important thing as that you find a reputable source that gives medically accurate & unbiased info

Varying Knowledge of Content• ASK!

• Ask colleagues, trainers you know (like members of the ACT TA team), peers @ conferences how/where they learned what they know

• Ask people what something means if you are not familiar with it (e.g. if an acronym is being used in conversation---ACT---ask what it means).

Varying Knowledge of Content

• PRACTICE! PRACTICE! PRACTICE!

• Do presentations (similar to teachbacks) with &/or for your colleagues & your youth w/feedback

• Practice explaining content to friends &/or family (particularly younger ones)

Issues that Challenge Your Values/Beliefs

Current events: • Racial Profiling/injustice (e.g. Starbucks incident or

BBQ incident in California)

• Sexual & Gender-based Violence: Me Too, Times Up, Say Her Name

• June: Gay Pride Month

Issues that Challenge Your Values/Beliefs

• Videos are a good way to introduce difficult topics

• Posters & appropriate images can also serve as a good educational tool

Video Clips

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssTZtRQmhxY - Shameless

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlx9iZ9g_9I - True Colors

Key points to addressing hot topics

• Your primary role is that of a youth ally

• Your primary responsibility is to give information that is factual, medically-accurate and to support your young people without shame or judgment

Your Opinion Matters

*You’re the educator for ALL the youth, not just the ones who share your opinions.

Because of this, your role as a youth ally should focus on teaching youth HOW to think, not WHAT to think!

• Critical thinking – Tell me do you know about this issue? What are the pros/cons? Who does this affect and how does it affect them?

• Promoting universal values – Respect for human rights, dignity for all people, compassion and understanding

From, “It’s Pronounced Metrosexual”

From, “It’s Pronounced Metrosexual”

From, “It’s Pronounced Metrosexual”

Guidelines for Adult Allies of Youth

Following are guidelines The Freechild Project uses to guide their programs and ensure that they are working from a PYD framework.

*Note: While we are focusing on “youth” in this webinar, remember the other marginalized identities that are in your programs & how you can be an ally to those groups as well (e.g. female-bodied, P.O.C., LGBTQIA, differently-abled, etc.)

Adapted from https://freechild.org/be-an-adult-ally-to-youth/

1. As a adult ally, anticipate some discomfort when you’re listening to Youth Voice.

2. If you can’t stay engaged enough to simply sit and listen to young people talk, you aren’t being an adult ally.

3. If you can’t be transparent with young people, you aren’t in a youth/adult partnership.

4. If you can’t expect and accept not having closure when young people share their voices you aren’t being an adult ally.

5. Listening to Youth Voice means listening for understanding, rather than to support your own conclusions.

6. If you’re an adult ally to young people you’ll engage, support, and challenge them, and not try to fix them. They aren’t broken.

7. If you aren’t taking risks you aren’t being an adult ally.

Question?

What if a young person asks you a question that you don’t know the answer to or makes you uncomfortable?

Possible Responses

You can address a question or comment without necessarily being responsible for answering that question

Possible Responses

• Remind participants of group agreements which apply to you as well. You are not obligated to answer questions of a personal nature.

Possible Responses

• The classic SOY formula

• …for Some• …for Others• …for You

Group Sharing & Reflection

Thoughts

Comments

Questions

Resources for Building Knowledge in Content Area

• Answer (Rutger’s University) – Sex Ed info, resources & training (on-line & in-person): http://answer.rutgers.edu

• Love Is Respect – Site on healthy relationships, abuse and intimate partner violence: http://www.loveisrespect.org/resources/download-materials/

• Planned Parenthood – Digital resources & in-person training: https://www.plannedparenthood.org

•

Resources : Articles• Positive Youth Development Approach to being a youth

allyhttps://freechild.org/be-an-adult-ally-to-youth/

• Understanding Adultism by John Bell http://www.nuatc.org/articles/pdf/understanding_adultism.pdf

• Test Yourself for Hidden Bias : https://www.tolerance.org/professional-development/test-yourself-for-hidden-bias

Resources

• ACT for Youth/Professional Development for Youth Workers: http://www.actforyouth.net/youth_development/professionals/

• ACT for Youth/Sexual Health: http://www.actforyouth.net/sexual_health/

• Project Implicit (Harvard University’s Implicit Bias Test): https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html

Contact• Michele Luc• ML782@cornell.edu